Recent Posts

The nuclear power industry, only recently embraced by some environmentalists as a potential replacement for carbon-belching coal-fired plants, is once again on the ropes, and not just due to heightened safety concerns in the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster.

Experts say the heavy subsidies needed to build new nuclear plants and the increased costs from tougher safety standards are a nonstarter given the nation’s fiscal crisis. As a result, nuclear is a less competitive option for producing electricity than a mix of cheap natural gas, wind and even solar power, which is rapidly declining in cost. Although prospects for a revival seemed bright only a few years ago, the steep price tag, coupled with the festering problem of disposing of spent nuclear fuel, creates a hostile environment for investing in nuclear power.

All of these forces came into play last week at the first congressional oversight hearing for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in more than a decade. In an unusual display of bipartisan rancor, House members from both political parties berated NRC chair Gregory Jaczko for two-and-a-half hours, accusing him of a multiplicity of sins that cut across political, ideological and geographical lines.

Representatives from states with operating plants near major cities and seismic faults wanted them shut down. Representatives from states with new plants on the drawing boards wanted faster reviews. Democrats and Republicans from states with large quantities of nuclear wastes wanted a long-term storage facility. In addition, some legislators even demanded the agency reconsider the shutdown of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, which was cancelled by the Obama administration last year. On top of it all, Republicans vowed to pursue an investigation into the agency decision-making process, with one lawmaker calling the five-member commission “the most secretive agency in Washington."

The unflappable Jaczko, a skilled bureaucratic infighter, took the grilling in stride. He previously served on the staff of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who led the bipartisan charge by Nevada politicians to cancel plans for nuclear waste storage beneath Yucca Mountain.

Instead of focusing on that controversial issue, he stressed that the NRC currently has 12 license applications under review, and this summer will hold its first hearing on a new reactor application since the mid-1970s. The Southern Company has applied for $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees for a $14 billion expansion of its Vogtle nuclear power station in eastern Georgia.

The crosscutting demands on the NRC reflect the escalating troubles facing the U.S. nuclear power industry, whose long-term prospects suffered a severe blow from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi reactors on Japan’s northeast coast.

But its problems preceded that disaster. Among conventional technologies for generating electricity, nuclear power has become just about the most expensive to build and run. A recent Energy Information Agency survey showed the combined capital and fuel costs of nuclear power exceeded every available technology except advanced coal-burning facilities that use carbon sequestration , an unproven technology, and solar, whose price is falling rapidly. Land-based wind, geothermal and biomass facilities are already cheaper than nuclear, and natural gas-driven turbines can produce power at a little over half of nuclear power’s cost.